Dress form



Dec. 19, 1950 L. CORDELL arm.

DRESS FORM Filed Aug. 1, 1950 INVENTOR. LULS 5. 6020520 BY LYON Coeozzu.

-A 7TOENEY- Patented Dec. 19, 1950 OFFICE DRESS FORM Lyon Cordell,Venice, and Luis S. Cordero, Inglewood, Calif.

Application August 1, 1950, Serial No. 177,026

7 Claims. (Cl. 223-68) This invention relates to dress forms. It isdirected particularly to a form having special utility for the displayof both ladies and mens garments including blouses, skirts, slacks,trousers, shirts, blouse or skirt and skirt or slack combinations,jackets, etc., although it is also applicable to forms for displayingdresses, suits, coats, etc. The general object of the invention is toprovide a dress form apparatus of multiple articulated sectionstructure, including a bust section and a base section for supportingthe same and providing particularly for the arrangement of the bustsection at various angles of inclination, either forward, backward orsidewise with respect to the base section.

We are aware that others have hitherto proposed dress forms embodying abust section pivotally connected to a base section for angularadjustment between the two. However, such prior proposals have taken theform of either a ball and socket connection between the bust section andthe base section, or an arrangement in which the upper portion of thebase section is received within the lower margin of the bust section andthe two are connected by springs or the like, for yieldingly holding thesections together in assembled relation. Such forms are satisfactory forsupporting dresses, coats and the like, but are not satisfactory fordisplaying blouses, shirts, or

blouse and skirt combinations, since they do not provide for convenientdisposal of the excess material at the tails of the blouse or shirt.

The draping of conventional forms requires the use of pins or equivalentsecuring elements, for attaching the garment or garments to the form.The pinning operation is laborious and time-consuming, and often damagesthe garments that are used for display purposes. Such garments aretherefore customarily disposed of at reduced prices, resulting in aprofit reduction or loss. It is obviously desirable to avoid the burdenof such profit reduction or loss as well as the overhead cost arisingfrom the consumption of labor in the draping operation.

With the foregoing in mind, a primary object of the present invention isto provide an articulated form of the type indicated, which may bedraped without pinning, and in which the excess tail material of a shirtor blouse may be readily disposed of without pinning, in a manner toconceal the same below the waistline of the form. To this end, theinvention provides a two part form including a bust section, the lowerportion of which is receivable within the upper portion of a basesection, with the said lower portion of I a skirt alone.

the bust section supported for universal pivotal movement by the upperrim of the base section. The invention is particularly characterized bythe fact that the two sections are entirely unconnected, so that thebust section can simply be lifted out of the base section, the shirt orblouse draped thereon and the tail portions thereof tucked into thelower end thereof, which is open for that purpose, and the draped bustsection then simply placed in the open upper end of the base section.The bust section may then be tilted within a supporting rim of the basesection until the desired angle is obtained. Should such tiltingmovement tend to loosen the excess material tucked into the lower end ofthe bust section, such loosened excess will simply drape downwardlywithin the base section, but will remain concealed.

This two part dress form combination also provides for draping the basesection witha skirt, the base section being shaped to correspond to theupper portion of the hip section of a human body, so as to provide adownwardly flaring support for the skirt. The invention also providesfor displaying a skirt thus draped upon a base section, either by itselfor in conjunction with a blouse draped on the bust section. Accordingly,further objects of the invention are to provide a sectional dress formwhich may be conveniently used either for displaying a blouse or shirtalone, a blouse or shirt in combination with a skirt, or It will bereadily apparent that the invention also provides for displaying ajacket or coat in combination with a blouse or shirt or a blouse orshirt and skirt combination.

A further object of the invention is to provide a dress form apparatuswhich may incorporate several base sections of varying height anddifferent construction, and in which the selection and use of either ofthe several alternate base sections in conjunction with a bust sectionmay 'be executed with extreme convenience and dispatch.

A further object is to provide a sectional dress form combination asoutlined above, which is readily adaptable to being supported either bydirect resting of the base section on a counter or other flat supportingsurface, or by threading the base section on the upper end of aconventional pedestal.

Other objects will become apparent in the ensuing specifications andappended drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a front perspective view of a dress form embodying theinvention, with the base section supported directly upon a fiat surface;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view thereof, with the base section supported on apedestal, taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an inverted plan view of the base section of Figs. 1 and 2;and

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view of an alternate base section withthe lower portion of the bust section supported therein, andillustrating how the bust section may be tilted with reference to thebase section.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, a dress form embodying myinvention may consist simply in a bust section A and a base section B.Apparatus involving the invention may further include an alternate basesection B, shown in Fig. 4. The sections A and B may be of conventionalmaterial, such as for example, the commonly used papier mache. Thesection A is hollow, and may include conventional portions such as theneck portion 6, closed at its upper end, closed shoulder portions '3, anintermediate portion 6, and a lower portion 9. Neck portion 6 may ofcourse be extended to include a conventional portion simulating a head,if desired, without departing from the invention. Likewise, wheredesired, extensions representative of arms may be attached to shoulderportions '1, in accordance with well known practice.

Alower portion 9 tapers to minimum transverse dimensions at its lowerend. Said lower end open, as at it. The tapering lower portion inlongitudinal section, is arcuately curved both front and rear and at thesides as shown in Figs. 2 and 4, to provide a concave outer wall forengagement with the upper rim I l of base section B or B. lhe convexcurvature of the outer wall of lower portion 9, as the latter cooperateswith rim H, provides, in effect, a ball and socket connection betweenthese two sections A and B or which permits the bust section A to beeasily tilted in any direction with reference to base 3 or B. Therounded longitudinal contour of portion fi makes it possible for thebust section A to be tilted to various positions without substantiallyraising or lowering the bust section. That is to say, the tilting tovarious positions may be accomplished by a tilting movement about acenter which is substantially fixed with reference to the bust sectionA, said center being approximately as indicated at $2 in Figs. 2 and 4.

Base sections B and B are contoured to correspond to the waist and upperhip portions of a human body, and extend downwardly from rim Si,beginning with an almost vertical waist portion it, thence graduallycurving outwardly and downwardly to define the hip portions 34. The baseB has a lower rim 95 which lies in a flat plane, whereby the basesection may be supported directly upon a flat supporting surface, asindicated at If; in Fig. 1.

Rim ii and waist portion 13 are shaped to fit the transverse crosssectional contour of lower portion 9 of oust section A. Accordingly, thebust section will contact rim l substantially throughout thecircumference thereof when the bust section is inserted into the base asindicated in Fig. 1.

Base section B is provided with a bracket I? extending transverselythereof from front to rear and secured to the front and rear wallsthereof as indicated at i8. Centrally, the bracket ll carries aninternally threaded socket 19 adapted to receive the threaded upper endof a pedestal 29, which may be of conventional construction, in-

4 eluding a base (not shown) for resting upon a floor surface. Thepedestal 20 is used when it is desired to dress the form with a skirt ora dress or a full length coat. When only a blouse or a jacket is to bedisplayed, a base may be detached from pedestal 23 and supporteddirectly upon a counter or table or the like it as indicated in Fig. 1.

For supporting the bust section A when displaying only a blouse orshirt, a simplified base omitting the bracket ll, may be in some casessubstituted for the base B of Fig. 1. It will thus clude a means forattaching it to a standard.

Also, the height of the base may be varied may in some cases (e. g. in abase used merely as a support for a bust section displaying only ablouse or shirt) be less than the height shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and mayin other cases (as where the base is provided with legs) be greater thanthat of the base shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 2 illustrates how the form may be dressed with a blouse 2i and askirt 22. Blouse i9 is draped around bust section A and its tailportions 23 are tucked upwardly through opening it into the lowerportion 9 of bust section A, as indicated in Fig. 2. If desired, a wadof tissue paper 24 or the like inserted into the lower end of the bustsection after the tail portions 23 have been tucked in, so as to securethe tail portions from coming loose, may be employed.

The skirt 22 is draped about the base section 3, supported by the hipportions M thereof, and secured around waist section :3 thereof asindicated. Thus the dress form gives an appearance quite similar to thatof a human body dressed in a blouse with the tails of the blouse tuckedinside the waist band of the skirt. The bust section A may be insertedinto or removed from the base section B without disturbing the supportof the skirt thereon.

In the earlier proposed forms in which a bust section is connected to abase section by coil springs or a ball and socket joint or othersecuring means, it obviously would be quite difficult to tuck the tailportions of a shirt or blouse between the waist section and the basesection. To do so would mean tucking the material through the crevicedefined between the bust section and the base section, and such anoperation would be somewhat difficult and quite unsatisfactory, eventhough it were possible to raise the bust section somewhat against thepull of springs tending to hold it tightly against the skirt section.Furthermore, where the waist portion of the base section is receivedwithin the waist section of the bust section, as proposed in the priorart, such arrangement would require tucking the material upwardly, andthere would always be a tendency for the excess material to drop backdownwardly through the crevice between the two form sections, eventhough after some difficulty it might become possible to initially tuckthe material in. Where the two sections are connected by a ball andsocket joint, it is of course impossible to tuck the material betweenthem.

Where only a skirt is to be displayed, bust section A may be simplyremoved and stored, and the base section B used in the conventionalmanner of a skirt form, with the skirt supported and draped around thebase section as indicated in Fig. 2.

Dress forms embodying the invention need not necessarily utilize basesection restricted to the hip zone of a body. The invention may alsoutilize a base section the lower portion of which is of conventionalmanm'kin construction including legs. Such a modification is indicatedin Fig. 4, in which a portion of a leg is indicated at 25.

We claim:

1. In a dress form, in combination, a base section comprising a tubularwall representing the waist and hip section of a human form and havingat its upper end a rim disposed in a substantially horizontal plane,said rim defining an opening at the upper extremity of the space withinsaid tubular wall and a bust section having an outer wall the lower areaof which defines a generally frusto-conical downwardly tapered lowerportion receivable within said opening and space, with said lower outerwall having an annular line of engagement with said rim to provide forthe support of said bust section by said rim, said outer wall and rimcooperatively defining, at the waist of the form, an unobstructedannular opening through which a bust garment may be tucked into saidspace so that the visible portion thereof terminates at the waist in amanner permitting pivotal adjustment of said bust section in said basesection to selected positions of angular adjustment relative thereto,said sections being unconnected except by the supporting engagement ofsaid bust section by said base section.

2. A dress form as defined in claim 1, wherein said base section is ofopen ended annular form with a bottom rim lying in a plane substantiallyparallel to that of said top rim, for support of said base section on ahorizontal fiat surface.

3. A form as defined in claim 2, wherein said base section includes abracket secured therein,

said bracket having a threaded socket to receive the threaded upper endof a supporting standard.

4. A form as defined in claim 1, wherein said lower portion of the bustsection has an external wall that is convexly curved in longitudinalsection.

5. A form as defined. in claim 1, wherein said lower portion of the bustsection has an external wall that is convexly curved in longitudinalsection both at the sides and at the front and rear thereof.

6. A dress form as defined in claim 1, of mannikin type, wherein saidbase includes lower portions simulating legs.

7. A form as defined in claim 1, wherein said bust section has at itslower end an opening through which excess material of said bust garmentmay be tucked, for stowing said excess material inside said bustsection.

LYON CORDELL. LUIS S. CORDERO.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 720,231 Dargie Feb. 10, 19031,073,960 Contenli Sept. 23, 1913 2,108,927 Rice Feb. 22, 1938 2,215,500Greneker Sept. 24, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 434,488Germany June 26, 1925

